JOCKEYING

The new house.

Back at the smaller place, Serena had not had a bedroom of her own. Here at the new, Fred rarely came into Serena's spacious room, which was why he was muted - he'd not knocked, and there she was when he came in, unannounced…..

There she was. Reading.

"Where'd you get that?" Fred asked. "Sometimes I think you simply refuse to pay attention."

She closed the book and placed it on her lap. "It's my book, Fred. If you men are going to quote from it, if the boys at Chancery are hell bent to create legislation from my musings, I'm going to read the thing. If only to make sure you're not screwing up."

"Read the title, Serena. 'A Woman's Place'," Fred shot back at her. "It's tough enough down at Chancery, all we'd need is for them to find you reading. I'll be assigned 'animal control'."

"Remember the shooting at the university?" Serena asked rhetorically, knowing that bringing that up always put him into a spin. "Remember how even the liberal press had spun it?" Serena recounted how the nasty crowd had stormed her 'signing table', and had stolen and destroyed all the copies of the book. So when it came time for Serena do to her reading, she simply stood in front of 1,000 supporters and recited from memory the whole preface to the book. Word for word. Didn't miss a comma. That combined with the shooting, was the last positive coverage that the liberal press had given them - until the liberal press was shut down.

It had also elevated an otherwise obscure Fred Waterford into the upper ranks of the Sons of Jacob. That had always been Serena's point for retelling the incident.

Serena then said, "Look, I'm tired. Tomorrow is another Wives' Tea at Naomi's." Fred corrected her. It was at Warren's. "For heaven's sake, Fred," Serena snapped back, "This is just you and me here. Don't be like that."

Fred walked back to the door, and said as he put his hand on the knob, "I've told Rita to get Offred ready tomorrow. I want her at the tea. Good optics."

Serena tossed the book on top of her bed covers. "Why would you do that, Fred? I've been humiliated enough. Where does this stop?"

"Attend me," Fred said as he exited. He said, "Good night, dear," closed the door behind him and descended the stairs to his office.

Where Offred, the now brain-addled Handmaid, was waiting at the Scrabble set.

FIRST AMONG EQUALS

'Naomi is more of a Christian than I am', Serena thought as she ascended the Putnam stairs, the Handmaid following exactly one stair behind. 'Naomi's Handmaid is also damaged,' she thought. 'And Naomi makes no big deal out of it. Naomi is better than me.'

Of course, Naomi's pregnant Handmaid helped her status. Of all the things Serena had written to prepare for Gilead, she had never anticipated that one's social-standing would depend on impregnating strangers, in your own home. Even damaged strangers, as the Putnam Handmaid had had an eye removed. For behavioural remediation. By all accounts, it had worked - Naomi was now all big on Christian forgiveness.

And why not. This was the third one in a row, where the Wives had been summoned to the Putnams for tea. Today's proceedings were tolerable for Serena on two accounts.

First, no matter how much Sonia Cushing had tried to sabotage Naomi, there they were - at the Putnams. Today was the day Serena planned on stalking Sonia, not waiting for her to saunter by. Serena planned to make note for Sonia that it had been a while since one of these things had been at the Cushings, setting up Serena's opening, a well placed, "Eat shit, sister."

Number two - the Waterford Handmaid was not the one being paraded around. Offred was sent to the kitchen for the duration. Serena had threatened all sorts of mayhem onto the driver, Nick, if Offred was seen anywhere else.

Two accounts? Turned out there were three. What happened next was more than just tolerating this awkward jockeying for position. It started with Naomi herself clinking the side of her tea-cup with a knife, quieting the room as quickly as if someone had dropped a blanket over it.

Naomi said, "Welcome ladies to Commander Putnam's house, and thank you for sharing in our joy. God is indeed good. It is truly…" she prompted….

… to which the Wives responded in unison, "A blessed day!"

Naomi continued, "The Commander and I have been wondering what we could do today, to really celebrate what God has done. I want you to know that this was The Commander's idea - and I hope that we have not caught Mrs. Waterford too much by surprise - it's a little bit naughty."

The room had been silent before that, now it was dead silent. To her surprise, the women around Serena imperceptibly seemed to take half a step away from her, leaving her completely out in the open. It was times like those that she detested being so tall.

Naomi looked straight at Serena and said, "Mrs. Waterford has blessed Gilead in so many ways. The Commander and I are in no position to ask her to commit apostasy, certainly not at this, a celebratory tea." At the word 'apostasy', the room rose with an audible gasp.

Naomi paused and continued, "But I am wondering. Could Serena bless us, not by reading - that's more than naughty. Could Serena honour our household by reciting. Reciting the preface to her book, like she had sacrificially done so many years ago."

Given that the floor had not swallowed her up, Serena took a breath. Then she recited in a raised voice:

"A woman's place. In a time when both community values and fertility itself is under attack. We women ourselves, we need to decide. It's hard making it in a society that only cares about profit and pleasure. No wonder God has turned his back on us. We need to take a sacrificial place beside our men, letting them do what they do best, freeing us to do what we do best. Marriage. The home. Children. When we women take our place, it truly will be….."

… to which the Wives responded in unison, "A blessed day!"

During the milling around which followed, many Wives came by to offer their well-wishings to Serena Joy. She'd just been elevated by Mrs. Putnam! They wished their 'thanks' on her for helping put Gilead on such a firm footing.

But it was Sonia's drive-by comment which Serena remembered. "We'll always have Antigua, Serena. We'll always have Princess Diana Beach, that marshmallow sand." Sonia sighed, "I've missed you, sister." Not 'bitch', but 'sister'.

Sonia finished by saying, "if I can get my credit card to work, what do you say…. let's be on the next flight back there. I miss it."

The bruising, it was hard to miss. On Sonia's wrists, as well as her face.

THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

Fred, being back from his tour of the East Central District, knocked quietly at Serena's door. Even though the Districts in Gilead themselves were sovereign, the others were increasingly looking to the New Gilead District here for leadership. Commander Joseph Lawrence's theories, particularly, were rewriting what Gilead had initially tried to implement. For the last week, Fred Waterford had been New Gilead's ambassador to his sovereign brothers to the west and south.

Serena said, "Come in," once again not even trying to mask that she was reading her book.

Seeing her sitting there like that, Fred said sheepishly, "Ok, ok. I admit it. By all accounts you delivered a tour de force at the Putnam's. I told you, Serena, we're quite the team. There's nothing we can't do, if we put our minds to it."

She shook her head at him, said, "Fred, you're so damned obsequious." He acknowledged that he sometimes had to scramble to "keep up" with her.

"But don't be too hard on me, Mrs Waterford." His eyes positively twinkled with the next news. "Putnam has said that next month's tea will be here. I've just told Rita."

"Fred, The Chancery is interfering with the Wives now?" Fred countered by saying that one was not 'interfering' with something one owns.

He continued, "We're climbing the ladder, Serena. We are. I told you. Cushing is being frozen out, for some reason Pryce is allowing that. We get next month's Wives' Tea, because the month after that we have to be back at the Putnum's - they'll be nine months along by then. So that one is set."

Despite what she'd written, Serena had neglected to see the Wives Teas as being some sort of locus of power. First the Red Centre and their note taking, now the Wives and their gossiping. There was lots to think about, especially if it was possible to maneuver Fred into Andrew Pryce's lofty position of High Commander. With New Gilead being seen in the Republic as 'first among equals', Fred was so close, she thought. So close.

He just needed babysitting.

THE DISASTER

Serena lay there in bed, listening for SUV tires in the drive. It was 3 am, and Nick was not back yet. This week of all weeks.

Wives' Tea in two days. An army of Marthas had been there for the last couple of days, helping Rita prepare. 'We really don't have the space,' she thought. Serena had never seen Rita like that before, she turned out to be a regular sergeant-major. The extra help would not be back until the day of the tea, Serena was reveling in the relative quiet of the night.

Yet it was 3 am, and Nick was still out. Being honest with herself, but trying to ignore it, Nick had left at 11 pm, yes with the Handmaid. Fred was not due back until this morning. At least that's what he'd said before heading out three days ago. Something was going on.

Then the burn. Of all burns. The SUV pulled into the drive - Nick, Fred, and the Handmaid got out. Snuck back into the house, like teenagers. Being an old house with creaky floorboards, Serena thought it particularly galling that they'd even try to tiptoe.

Fred had not gone to his bedroom, which meant he was down in his inner sanctum, his office. She heard Offred upstairs in her room. Serena waited until 4:30 am for Nick to ascend to the carriage house, above the garage.

Burning fire, and knowing she was not going to sleep, she couldn't believe that Fred would do 'that' so close to the Wives Tea. She thought, 'it's not enough that he humiliates me, he has to endanger everything we work for.'

Pulling on her robe, she went out to the upper hallway. Deciding between going downstairs and giving Fred a piece of her mind, she belayed that and headed upstairs where she'd heard the handmaid sneak back to her room.

The gall of that girl. Laying there crying on the bed. Serena thought, 'I'll give her something to cry about.' Serena ordered the girl to stand, and when she didn't, it enraged Serena all the more. She pulled the girl to her feet, and just like her dad had taught - braced herself by positioning her right foot behind, she delivered the second-most satisfying punch she'd ever thrown. It stopped the girl's crying, as she fell back onto the bed. Descending the stairs it occurred to Serena, that the cessation of tears could have been because of a well earned concussion. 'Serves her right.'

Then sleep. Rehearsing the mayhem that she was going to visit upon Fred. Then hours later, the disaster - Rita screaming. Completely hysterical.

MID-MORNING MAYHEM

It was mid-morning, Rita's screams had brought Serena to her door. Opening it, she was in time to see Nick racing up the stairs to the Handmaid's room. Halfway up herself - with Fred behind her - Nick was now coming down.

"Commander," Nick implored. "Don't go up. She's not put a pillow case over her head. You don't want to see it. I'll need back-up to cut her down."

Rita was hysterical. Probably meant that lunch would be late. Serena thought it completely ironic that the girl's body was collected by the 'Birthmobile'. As the body was being loaded, Serena managed a heavily sarcastic, and loud barb Fred's way, "What did you think was going to happen?"

Then, Serena observed, the disaster. The Wives' Tea was moved.

To Sonia Cushing's. Bitch.